10K PP Giveaway Contest #4 - Exploration and Journeys
 

As requested, this next contest will involve something that is accessible to pretty much everyone. Classic EQ was definitely a journey, it could take hours just to cross a continent. Whether it's stumbling your way through the dark passages of Everfrost into Blackburrow for the first time, an epic journey into the heart of Kunark or hitting the frontiers of Velious, go nuts. As usual i'll leave this up for a week, then select three stories for the community to vote on. The most votes takes the plat.

Congrats once again to Khanable for winning the last contest.

Cheers all

you rock dude

Sweet. Writing my najena journey soon

A Noob and an Ocean:
I started playing the game in 2000, after Kunark release but prior to Velious. I eventually decided on a wood elf warrior, and was making my way through the teens in Crushbone. As Throne Room groups died down, I had heard from other players that the place to go was Antonica, to High Pass Hold in the mountains.

My first big obstacle in this adventure would be the Ocean of Tears. After asking a kind druid for a SoW, I made my way through the Faydark, then the Butcherblock Mountains (following the path mind you, I did not know how to navigate the valleys of Butcherblock). Upon finally arriving at the docks, having passed the mighty entrance to Kaladim, I waited for the Boat.

And I waited, and then when I was tired of waiting I waited some more. Finally, after an arduous run, the Boat arrived and I booked passage to Freeport. Upon arriving in the Ocean of Tears, I set to exploring the ship and the view from her bow. Well, my warrior slipped and fell into the Ocean.

"How do I get on the boat if I've fallen off?" A kind gnome quickly responded, "Swim to the back and get on the rudder." Phew, I could still make it! Except, I had no swimming skill. So my nearly overburdened wood elf warrior futilely attempted to swim to the rear of the Boat, when it took off towards the horizon, leaving me stranded in the middle of the Ocean, with no idea of which direction to head and the obvious conclusion that whichever direction it was, it was going to take me a long time to get there without knowing how to swim.

"I missed the Boat, where do I go now?" The same gnome told me to head East towards Sister Island. Ok!...but..."Which way is East?" Then the kind gnome explained how I could practice my Sense Heading. This whole time, I'm swimming, slowly, in some random direction.

I finally, after many futile attempts, determine I'm heading Southeast. A quick adjustment to my course and I'm heading East. Great! But now my little yellow bar is depleting! I'm running out of stamina to swim! I cannot continue to swim without stamina! What will I do? So I begin taking breaks swimming. I swim while I have stamina, then stop (and slowly drown) while the bar replenishes a bit. I quickly determine I'm not going to make it. The bar is refilling much slower than I'm depleting it by swimming! You cannot swim without stamina, and I do not have any! So, in my naivety, I let myself drown. I watch agonizing on the other side of the screen as my warrior sinks to the bottom of the Ocean.

Upon respawning, back in Greater Faydark, I humbly ask for a SoW for a CR. I repeat the same arduous journey I had just made, still not knowing how to cut through the Butcherblock Mountains or the quick route through the Faydark, finally arriving back in the Ocean of Tears on the Boat. This time, I've learned my lesson, my warrior never moves on the Boat, waiting at the spawn spot in the middle of the Boat. Finally, at a dock, I disembark, knowing I'm in the zone of my body and that the Boat will have to stop by here again eventually.

"I died in the water, can anyone help me find my body?" The gnome informs me to ask a GM for his services via /petition. So I dutifully explain in a petition that I died because I ran out of stamina trying to swim in the Ocean of Tears because I fell off the boat.

A short while later (probably an agonizing hour or more at the time it happened), a GM shows up to take pity on this novice to Norrath. He summons my body and provides a GM rez and then explains that stamina is not important for swimming. I then wait for the boat, again a long time, before finally catching it and ultimately ending up in Freeport for the first time.

After about 5 hours, I have made it 4 zones and not earned an ounce of EXP (thankfully I didn't lose exp nor my body though!). But I did learn many valuable EQ noobie lessons in 1 night:
1) Max Sense Heading ASAP (and how to bind it).
2) Max swimming ASAP.
3) Stay on the Boat.
4) How to petition.
5) Stamina doesn't matter for swimming, only jumping and combat.

Lessons learned the next time I logged on and continued my trek to High Pass:
1) Rebind...
2) Gryphons.
3) Kithicor.

Not an exploration story, but I think it was an adventure!

The Party in Qeynos Hills:
Myself (Kaleran) and a friend I had met online (Fatbastard...later asked by a GM to be renamed to Grunga. We'll just call him Grunga) decided that Qeynos hills wasn't a lively place. See, I was a wood elf druid and he a human warrior who had many adventures in the surrounding areas. After killing Wisps for hours on end on Wisp Island (Erud's Crossing) with Grunga's excellent new weapon Axe of the Iron Back, we decided to use our new gains to throw a party for the fine residents of Qeynos!

At this time Qeynos Hill was a bustling joint. Young adventurers passing to and fro trying to gain experience while slaughtering the evils that lived outside the gates of Qeynos. Here is where we decided to set up refreshments to quench the thirst of those drenched in blood and sweat. "Come to the party near the first road marker to Qeynos!" I shouted. Men and women showed up in droves to divulge in our salty sweets. "More beer!" one man shouted, "Ahj uha lowhh!" exclaimed another really drunk patron. Grunga and I did our best to be gracious hosts, and handed each patron even more Blackburrow Stout than even we knew they could handle.

Then...she came. See, as a wood elf here in the human lands of Qeynos, I had grown weary of being alone. Sure there are half-elves, but they just don't have the majestic beauty you find in the Faydwyer. But here she was, a gorgeous High Elf cleric wearing a stunning leather suit. I walked up to her and offered a stout "I think this one is the freshest from the batch." She eyed me carefully, and took the drink and pounded it down quicker than any barbarian could hope for. A lady AND a hero!

There was idle chatter, which soon became idle "ahuwih aeowbu baow" as we drank more and more. As she left the party, I began to sober up. I turned to Grunga and he asked me about the fine lady. In my still drunken stupor, I told him simply "If only I could have seen what she looked like under that leather armor...". I heard no response from my friend. I looked at him idly, then a shiver ran down my back. As I turned around, there was the high elf beauty looking at me. Apparently she came back for more! As I stumbled for words "I..err..uhm..." she smiled, planted a kiss on my cheek, and ran back to the city of Qeynos.

Grunga, who was on the floor at this point boiled over in laughter, finally came to his senses and gave me a pat on the back. "I think you should stick to what you're best at. Killing Wisps!"

The party continued on. More and more patrons showed up, but all of them humans. We emptied our stock of Blackburrow stout and made our way back into the city of Qeynos.

I never saw the high elf again. I wonder sometimes what could have been at the party in Qeynos Hills.

(The story is true...just a little embellishment on the dialogue!)

Haggle for president 2012

Back on live, I had a pretty fantastic night on Luclin's release.

Some friends and I decided that since Luclin had just come out, we would go exploring. After running around for a few hours, we found ourselves inside the Fungal Grove. We were the only 6 people in zone, and as far as we knew, the first ones to be there.

After a short while messing around with the front trash, I decided to go exploring in the many nooks and crannies of the caves. After many feigns and quite a few near death scares, I found an open spot in the back left corner, a sort of cove area with spawn spread around in front of it, and a bit of a ledge. The group invised, and moved to me. The night was spent slaughtering bugs and the big red cavemen (whose names elude me), for pretty great exp. About half an hour in, our casters (mage/enchanter) began noticing that their new Velious spells were dropping quite often: so often, in fact, that they had looted all of them within the first hour. A short while later I noticed that the little path leading up to the ledge had pathing script that would cause the mobs to actually run to the group, rather than stand below it in some anti-gravity melee abyss. After the warrior left, we recruited another caster friend, and I was instructed to pull as many mobs as I could, without causing death, and I did so.

A three hour AoE session began, whose resulting xp pushed me almost the whole way through 52. The newly acquired wizard got his spells as well, and the rest of the non casters, myself included, walked away with 3-4 newly minted spells, from which I personally made a cool 7K. The next day I logged into patch notes, saying that not only had the Fungal mobs had their exp and loots adjusted, but also that they now had 'proper' AC & HPs. The bugs now hit like trucks, and the cavemen were worse, not to mention terrible, terrible xp. Fungus Grove never really took off on my server after that, but we few sure had a fun, profitable night - one that's stayed in my memory for well over ten years.

Not to be a downer, but which zone was this really? This is a cool story, but Fungal Caverns DNE. If this was indeed Velious, was it Velk's Lab? or Crystal Caverns(seems a bit low for the low-50s crowd)? Or maybe its Fungus Grove from Luclin?

Hah, you're right. It was Luclin, and it was Fungus Grove. I'll edit accordingly. I remember the night, the details are fuzzy. Forgive me, college happened between then and now :)

NP, I just didn't know that about FG. Thanks for enlightening me to another gem about this game!